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General Motors’ (NYSE:GM) shares are getting a lift on Wednesday and pushed through resistance at the 200-day moving average as plans for a plug-in-hybrid, increased U.S. investments, and an upbeat forecast for Q2 put the stock in the green for a fourth straight day.
“We actually think Q2’s earnings are going to be better than Q1,” GM (NYSE:GM) chief financial officer Paul Jacobson said at the Deutsche Bank Global Auto Industry Conference.
“May was a really, really strong month for us,” Jacobson said, with vehicle volumes the best for the company since December 2020.
“The roughly 1% discount to industry average incentives that we often talk about actually widened in May, a little bit as a sign of our strong continued commercial performance.”
To accommodate consumers that aren’t ready for a fully electric vehicle, GM (NYSE:GM) plans to bring a plug-in hybrid to the market in 2027.
“Bringing an option to them that also qualifies as an EV under the compliance standards is going to be really important to us as a flex lever,” he said.
Introducing a plug-in hybrid aligns well with market trends, as demonstrated by robust demand for the company’s alternative-fuel vehicles in its most recent sales data
Led by gains in the Chevy Bolt, Silverado and Blazer EVs and the Hummer EV, demand for GM-made EVs drove 94% sales growth in the first quarter to 31,887 vehicles, outperforming sales for its best-selling pickups and SUVs.
But despite healthy demand for its fully-electric vehicles, the overall market is not yet where GM can justify ambitious EV production targets.
“I think most prognosticators were thinking that the EV market would be up about 10% of total autos. We still see it trending around that 8% level. As a result, we’ve talked before about 200,000 to 300,000 EVs this year. We’re actually going to trim that to 200,000 to 250,000,” he added, offering assurances that the company will not overproduce when demand is not there.
“We’ve been very consistent about building a platform and growing EVs off of that and being able to do it in a way that meets customer expectations and grow into profitability,” Jacobson said.